A Brent landlord will be spending the next 16 weeks in prison after illegally evicting 35 men from their homes before bolting the doors.

Ilie Florin Dragusin, who currently resides in Edgware, locked the men out of a converted three-bedroom semi-detached house after the property was raided by Brent Council's enforcement team in September last year.

Gragusin was one of three head tenants at the property, in Winchester Avenue, in Kingsbury, which was home to the 35 men who were found to be living in substandard conditions in an unlicensed HMO (house in multiple occupation).

He ignored four sets of warnings by enforcement officers not to change the locks on the property.

Read More

Brent Cross Shopping Centre's vast expansion plans

Willesden Magistrates' Court heard how he showed no regard for the people he had locked out after he removed their belongings from the property.

Cllr Eleanor Southwood, the council's cabinet member for housing and welfare reform, said: "This custodial sentence sends a strong message to anyone thinking that they can get away with illegally evicting their tenants.